Publish date | 23 May 2019 |
Issue Number | 4704 |
Diary | Legalbrief Today |
State Security Agency Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba's office has denied claims she had spied for the agency on her colleagues in the ANC. And the agency has categorically denied that Letsatsi-Duba had been one of its sources or agents. A TimesLIVE report says the statement was issued in response to a weekend article in The Sunday Independent, which alleged she had ‘lived a double life as a Limpopo MEC and a paid spy’ for more than a decade. Letsatsi-Duba was elected ANC treasurer in Limpopo 2008 and was Agriculture MEC between 2009 and 2014. ‘The State Security Agency (SSA) is ordinarily loathe to comment on its methods and resources,’ the agency said in its statement. ‘However, in light of the article published in Independent Newspapers group on 19 May 2019 alleging that Minister Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba was an agent of the SSA, it is in the public interest element that we respond. In this regard we wish to categorically state that Minister Letsatsi-Duba has never been a source or agent of the SSA.’ The report notes the agency has been rocked by damning findings contained in a report by a high-level review panel, led by former Minister and academic Sydney Mufamadi. The panel found that during Jacob Zuma's presidency, when former spy boss Arthur Fraser headed the agency, it was used to fight factional battles and illegally spy on Zuma's opponents.